Christmas Presents, Revealed!

So, now that my Christmas presents have been to their respective recipients, I can now post pictures of what this little elf has been working on for over the past month or so.

Non-Felted Hats

Men's Green/Tan Cammo Beanie:




Women's Green/Tan Cammo V-Stitch Beanie with Pink Accent and Floral Embellishment:




Close-up of floral embellishment:




Men's Desert Sand Cammo Beanie:




Men's Gray Beanie with Ribbed Band Accent:




Men's Ribbed Gray Beanie:




Women's Blue Chenille Open-work Beanie:




Women's Pink Variegated Shell Pattern Beanie with Matching Shell Pattern Mini-Scarf:




Women's "Curly" Yarn Beanie with Shell Edging and Corkscrew Embellishment:




Women's "Curly" Yarn Beanie with Shell Edging and Corkscrew Embellishment and Matching Corkscrew Scarf:




I really liked the "Corkscrew" set :)





Felted Hats

Women's Derby Style Pink Variegated Felted Hat with Flower Embellishment:




Women's Hunter Green Bell Style Hat with Bauble Embellishment:




Women's Turquoise Bell Style Hat with Yarn Button Embellishment:




Women's Chili Pepper Bell Style Hat with Yarn Button Embellishment:




Women's Bluebell Bell Style Hat with Bauble Embellishment:




Women's Blue and Brown Variegated Bell Style Hat with Yarn Button Embellishment:




Women's Celery Bell Style Hat with Bauble Embellishment:




Women's Heather Gray Bell Style Hat with Yarn Button Embellishment:

Stay Tuned...

...when Christmas is over, I'll post pictures of all the projects I've completed and given as gifts. But, I'm obviously not going to post those before the 25th and ruin the surprise for everyone! :)

Pittsburgh Beanies

I made these two hats as birthday gifts. The first was for my mom's youngest brother turning the big 5-0 this year and the second was for my cousin turning the big 2-1! :) They were in FL last week, so I whipped these up as special tokens for their "big" birthdays!

Like me, they are from Pittsburgh. Unlike me, they are mostly Penguins fans (whereas I, of course, am a STEELERS fan - clinching the AFC North today - woot! woot!)

Felted Hat with Crocheted Flower

I've felted another hat! This one was made of Palette Collection yarn that I bought at Pat Catans craft store when I was recently up in Pittsbugh. This scarf was made in series Palate Collection 006/219 (Merlot) color.

Here is the hat before I felted it in the washing machine:






Post-felting; I put the little crocheted flower on the side, with a bauble with extra stitching as the center:

Aaahhhh...Waikiki

This is my latest scarf I finished last weekend. The yarn is a fine Italian brand that I found in Tuesday Morning of all places! The maker of the yarn is Laines Du Nord and the line is called Cashsilk, a 50% Merino extrafine unshrinkable wool, 25% silk and 25% cashmere (Color/Lot 656/597). It is sooo soft and yummy. I wasn't able to find their company site. The best I could do is on SkeinsScene.com where they call it "pink". I really got a bargain on the yarn... I only paid $3 per ball!

I found some really great patterns on the Naturally Caron site, and this scarf I used the Wikiki pattern.

I love this scarf! The pattern is suppposed to be small "pineapple" stitches, which they call "strawberries". I think my favorite thing about it is the fringe... just loops of chains. I think this is a great take on the idea of fringe. I'll have to use it on other projects!

Full Scarf (I just had my hair "did" :)




Close-up of one of the "strawberries". If you see up towards the top, there are the "leaves" and then the points that come down from there to form the strawberry.

Rolled brim felted hat complete!

The felted hat that was drying with pins in the rolled brim from my last post is now dry. Whatdaya think?

Bauble Felting Fun!

I've finished two other kits that are similar to the change purses. The first was a hat kit. The kit is another "One Stick|Two Stick" kit in Lichen color scheme. The yarn was all made of bamboo wool and was totally soft!

First I made the hat... doesn't look abnormal, right?




But, you can see how big it is when I put it on! Don't worry, it will shrink when I throw it in the washing machine :)




Here it is after it is out of the washing machine, with some bauble embellishments:




On me:








The kit came with enough yarn to make a second (non-felted) hat. Cute, Huh?




I'm a dork :)




So, "baubles"... what are those? Well, the hat kit, and a second kit for making "Girlfriend Bracelets" had these. Basically, you make a little ball that is filled with wool yarn and then throw them into the wash to "felt" them. Here are all the baubles I made prior to felting. Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Two hands full!




I then threaded yarn through the center a number of times, quartering the bauble and securing it with a French knot. These made the little "flower" shapes that I attached to the greenish hat above, as well as making the bracelets!








So, I tried another felted hat pattern that I found online. I made this hat with Vision yarn by Moda Dea in Sedona color. I wasn't sure if it would felt like the other hat since the yarn was a wool blend (65% wool, 35% acrylic). What I learned is that it will felt, but I now need to buy a sweater "trimmer" thingy to de-fuzz the hat :) I think it will look pretty cute when it is finished though.

Here is the hat beforehand, laid out on the table. Again, it doesn't look so crazy.




But, as you can see, it is HUGE when I put it on!!




Here is the hat, post-felting. I've pinned the brim up so that it will roll like a derby. The pins will come out when the hat is dry.




Finally, I made more of my new favorite little baubles out of the leftover yarn, so it didn't go to waste :)

Wine Bottle Cover

I made this little ditty for a friend as a "hostess gift" when going to her house for a party. It is made with Moda Dea brand yarn, out of their Beadnik style, a yarn that has pre-strung beads attached. This one is made out of the color "Chocodelic".

The only thing I would do differently when I make this again would be to put a bottom on the wine bottle cover. The pattern I followed didn't have me make one for this, and I think it could have used it. Nonetheless, I think it turned out pretty cute!

First Completed Felting Project

Ok, so have you ever put a sweater made of 100% into the washer and it comes out about 1/4th the size it had originally been? Not to mention it is all fuzzy and, well, felt-like? THAT is what "felting" is. There are a lot of crochet (and knit) projects where you do this INTENTIONALLY, by making an item bigger than it needs to be and then throwing it into the washing machine (with very HOT water) and then squeezing the excess water out and laying flat to dry. I've always wanted to try this technique but was worried I wouldn't do it right.

We went to our local AC Moore store last Saturday (it is like a Joann's or Michaels) to see what was on sale for the liquidation "going out of business" sale. I found these little felting kits by One Stitch Two Stitch (they have a website on the box, but it doesn't seem to work, but it looks like a Coats & Clark product because the Coats logo is on the bottom of the box. I bought three kits, one to make little change purses, one to make bracelets and one to make hats. The great thing about these kits is that there is enough materials in each to make more than one project! The yarn used is a bamboo/wool blend.

I started off with the change purses. The first thing you do is crochet the pieces normally (no new technique here). Here is what the first change purse looked like before I sewed it in half:




I then finished crocheting the other two purses and seamed them up, as well as the embellishments.




Then, they went into a pillowcase that was tied off at the end (so the pieces didn't get stuck under the agitator of the washing machine:




Here are the pieces after they came out of the washing machine, "felted":




Close-up of one of the purses... this is what the "felted" stitches look like... quite fuzzy (note, the picture is actually in FOCUS, it is the material that is fuzzy!):




Close-up of the felted embellishments:








Change purse #1 all felted and put together:




Change purse #2 all felted and put together:




Change purse #3 all felted and put together:




Inside one of the change purses: